


May I Have This Dance?

by marshie_marshmallow



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Gen, They/Them Pronouns for My Unit | Byleth, all the students show up (unless i missed someone), but never for more than a sentence each outside of the house leadersm, purposefully vague on the route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:07:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28501227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marshie_marshmallow/pseuds/marshie_marshmallow
Summary: Byleth is at the ball as a chaperone. They are not supposed to be dancing.Their students disagree.
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth & Everyone
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	May I Have This Dance?

**Author's Note:**

> nagamas gift that was delayed by life getting in the way. but it's finished now!

“You look… how do I put this?”

“Like I have no idea what I’m doing?” Byleth asked drily as they continued to let Claude lead them across the dancefloor.

“Yeah.” He shrugged as much as he was able without breaking his hold on them. “I mean, I’m not great with all this fancy dancing stuff either but _ you _ …”

“Merc life doesn’t leave much time to learn dancing.”

“No, I guess not.”

“You know that I’m only a chaperone, right?” Most of the faculty and knights were spending the night out drinking but someone had to keep an eye on the students.

Claude nodded. “I get one dance with you. Fair?”

They sighed. “Fine.  _ One _ dance but that’s mostly because we’re already dancing.”

The dance continued for another minute or two, ending just as they passed by the incredibly awkward pair of Ferdinand and Leonie. Just as Byleth was about to pull away and return to their corner, Claude seamlessly spun them out towards Ferdinand, who was all too happy to take their hand. Leonie rather awkwardly stepped away from Ferdinand and took up a position with Claude.

“It would seem as though we are now each other’s partners for the next dance, Professor,” Ferdinand said.

“Claude-!” they started.

“You said _ I  _ get one dance, Teach!”

Sothis laughed at them as the next dance started up.

Their attempts to escape from Ferdinand fared no better, as they found themself ending up dancing with Hapi, who was very enthusiastic about being at her first-ever formal event. From there, they passed into the hands of Ashe, who looked to be concentrating entirely too much on where his feet were. Then, from Ashe to Hilda, who had probably put more effort into her appearance than anyone else present. From Hilda, it was to Dorothea, who was quite possibly the best dancer in the room given her background.

From Dorothea, they were passed to Sylvain, who shamelessly flirted with them. Byleth responded by, at Sothis’ encouragement, shamelessly stepping on his foot. Hard.

They passed through the hands of Mercedes, who looked as serene as always in the way that made Byleth sometimes suspect that she was just high all the time, and Linhardt, who proved to be fairly good even if he’d definitely rather be in bed, before ending up with Edelgard.

“Hello, Professor,” she said. “How is your evening faring?”

“You know I’m not really supposed to be on the dance floor, right?”

She hummed. “And yet here you are.”

“This is all Claude’s fault, I’ll have you know.”

“I do believe you were dancing with _ Linhardt _ , Professor.”

“Yeah, but he started- Wait, are you all in on this?”

_ “Oh, poor Professor Eisner,” _ Sothis mocked.  _ “Doomed to have every student asking for a dance.” _

“I am certain I don’t know what you mean, Professor,” Edelgard replied.

“You all planned this, didn’t you?”

“A coordinated effort across houses? Just to get one teacher to dance with everyone? Are you sure?”

_ “They definitely planned this,” _ Sothis said.

Edelgard refused any further attempts to question her about this conspiracy before passing them on to the next student.

Petra chattered about how she’d been practicing her Fodlan-style dancing for the ball. Lysithea struggled with the height difference. Raphael had surprisingly managed to be pulled away from his food to dance. Leonie avoided Byleth’s questions. Felix looked ready to commit a murder. Ignatz apologized for not being very good and, last but not least, Ingrid muttered about having let Mercedes and Annette dress her up for this.

The next student in line was Yuri. Byleth strongly suspected that if  _ any _ student was in on Claude’s master plan, it was him.

“Seems a bit far-fetched to me,” he replied.

“Then why has nobody let me stop?”

“Have you asked to stop?”

“Well… not specifically.”

“If you’re uncomfortable-”

“I’m not. I just- I’m not  _ technically _ supposed to be dancing. Just chaperoning.”

“Who’s going to care?”

_ “I doubt even Seteth would mind too much,” _ Sothis added.

“I guess no one,” Byleth said.

“Well, if it won’t bother them and it doesn’t bother  _ you _ ...” was all Yuri said before Byleth suddenly found themselves in Constance’s arms instead.

Constance was incredibly exuberant in her dancing. Caspar had an infectious enthusiasm. Lorenz was a little too boastful of his skills. Dancing with Bernadetta consisted mostly of swaying back and forth on the corner of the dance floor. Hubert’s facial expression never once changed through their very stilted dance. Balthus had his shirt open a little too much, though the fact that any of the buttons had been done up was frankly a surprise. Dedue was quiet the whole time. Marianne kept apologizing for being terrible despite being quite good and, finally, Annette kept chattering about how much fun she was having.

Finally, they ended up with Dimitri, who gave them a strange look.

“You look exhausted, Professor,” he remarked.

“I have danced. With well over twenty students.” They took a deep breath. “I don’t think I can keep going after this one.”

“I see. I suppose Claude didn’t consider that when he got everyone to agree to this.”

Byleth paused. “... You  _ did _ plan this!”

Sothis was cackling so hard, it was hard to hear their own thoughts.

“Well, yes. Was that not clear?”

“Everyone else refused to give me a straight answer.”

“... Perhaps I shouldn’t have said anything.”

The final dance was slow, which Byleth suspected was because Dimitri was accounting for their tired state. As the song came to a close, they weren’t handed off to another student but were allowed to pull away. Either they had run through all the students in on the conspiracy or Dimitri was bringing it to a premature end.

Either way, Byleth slipped out of the hall and into the night air, taking a deep breath. The other chaperones could handle things for a while. They needed a break. Somewhere they could slip away and there would, hopefully, be no students waiting to ambush them.

But where to go…?


End file.
